Tyrone Garner, whose arrest in violation of Texas sodomy laws led to a challenge before the Supreme Court and an eventual victory that struck down such statutes across the country, died after a lengthy illness, friends said Wednesday. He was 39.

Garner, who died Monday of meningitis in a Houston-area hospital, was openly gay but not politically active when he chose to fight his arrest in court, said his lawyer, Mitchell Katine.

"He was very shy and did not like to speak publicly," Katine said. "But privately he was very happy to be part of the civil rights fight for gay and lesbian people."

One of the greatest civil liberties victories for gay Americans began with a petty grudge.

On Sept. 17, 1998, Garner was in the home of John Lawrence in defiance of the wishes of his partner at the time, Robert Eubanks. Eubanks called the Harris County Sheriff's Office and told authorities that a crazed gunman was in the house.

"I think he was jealous," Garner said of Eubanks in a 2004 interview with the Houston Chronicle.

Two deputies arrived and found the door unlocked and Garner and Lawrence having sex. The pair was arrested and charged with "homosexual conduct," a misdemeanor that made it a crime for same-gender couples in Texas to have sex, even in private. They spent several hours in jail before posting $200 bond.

Lawrence and Garner were approached by Katine and the New York-based Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund. Lawrence wanted to challenge the arrest, but Garner was initially reluctant.

They pleaded no contest in criminal court and took their case to the state appellate level, where they lost. In 2002 their case landed before the U.S. Supreme Court.

"He decided to fight against all odds," Katine said of Garner. "We lost at every level in Texas, and the only place we won was the Supreme Court."

The court ruled 6-3 in favor of Lawrence and Garner, deciding that the Texas law violated the Constitution's privacy guarantee. The decision also struck down the remaining similar laws that were still on the books in 13 states.

In the opinion for the majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote:

"The petitioners are entitled to respect for their private lives. The State cannot demean their existence or control their destiny by making their private sexual conduct a crime. Their right to liberty under the Due Process Clause gives them the full right to engage in their conduct without intervention of the government."

Paul Scott, the executive director of Equality Texas, a gay rights advocacy group based in Austin, said that Garner's victory set the stage for the battle over same-sex marriage.

"I think sometime people don't realize how great a victory it was," Scott said. "In many states sodomy laws were used to deny people custody of their children, it affected employment and sometimes was used to prevent people from seeking legal redress because they were considered criminals."

Scott said that a great debt was owed to Garner.

"Anyone having to be the public face of this issue would have had to go through some hard times," Scott said. "It took a lot of courage to fight."

The secrecy served the interests of the movement, said Ray Hill, a pioneering gay rights advocate in Houston, who knows both men. "They are not the kind of people that the lawyers want to comment on this case," Hill said. "They were never a couple. . . . They are not articulate."

It was neither man's first brush with the law when a Harris County sheriff's deputy, responding to a romantic rival's false report of a man with a gun, entered the apartment at the Colorado Club on Sept. 17, 1998, and found the men engaged in sex.

For Garner, Harris County court records list arrests for assault, drunken driving and possession of a small amount of marijuana. Department of Public Safety records show only two convictions for assault, in 1995 and 2000.

Lawrence has two convictions for drunken driving and one for murder-by-automobile in 1967.

[snip]

Garner "punched me on my left eye two times" in January 2000, said Robert Royce Eubanks in an affidavit. Garner also beat Eubanks with a hose in 1999 while "using crack and drinking" and beat him with a belt in 1998, the affidavit said.

In May 1998, Garner "stabbed me on my right ring finger with a box cutter" and "grabbed a hot iron and burned me" and "then sexually assaulted me," Eubanks charged.

A temporary protective order was granted, but the case apparently was dropped after Eubanks' lawyer withdrew, saying she could not locate him for a scheduled trial.

And the city has redesigned their website so the old link to the HPD case on Eubanks death (one of two names he used) is broken.

6
posted on 09/14/2006 9:12:29 AM PDT
by weegee
(Remember "Remember the Maine"? Well in the current war "Remember the Baby Milk Factory")

And just how did he get meningitis? Nevermind, I don't think I want to know...

A little squeamish? Shopping cart, door handle, anything someone with a bacterial infection might have touched and deposited germs on. Or possibly as a secondary infection following an upper respiratory infection or ear infection.

9
posted on 09/14/2006 9:23:36 AM PDT
by ahayes
(My strength is as the strength of ten because my heart is pure.)

Hmmm.....I seem to remember that the sodomy case was politically motivated. I think I read about it on a thread here at FR. The cops get there, and find the 2 guys going at it. They refused to stop buggering long enough to even acknowledge the law-enforcement officers who were responding to a call, so they were arrested (presumably after being either pried apart or having a hose turned on them?).

It wearies me when people are so knee-jerk emotional that they make silly comments like supposing meningitis is transmitted through anal sex. It was a silly comment. If you don't like having your silly comments pointed out, perhaps you should hit the web and find out what bacteria cause meningitis and how it is transmitted before making wrong medical pronouncements.

20
posted on 09/14/2006 10:15:52 AM PDT
by ahayes
(My strength is as the strength of ten because my heart is pure.)

I remember something like that too. I think the officers stated that they thought it was staged, and they were set up. Walking into the residence, the caller stood out of the way to let the officers thru and witness the episode. It was something screwy like that. The whole thing was contrived to get a case before the courts.

The folks at lonestartimes.com should probably have the info on that. Houston based blog. They started as watchdogs of the Houston Chronicle.

I always thought the Chronicle just followed thru with mindless reporting without giving the inside information.

This is just another instance where the courts have been used to advance a specific cause thru illigitimate cases. 1.) 1930s ruling restricting the 2nd amend. 2.) Roe V Wade 3.) this one comes to mind..

25
posted on 09/14/2006 10:21:39 AM PDT
by urtax$@work
(we have faced tenacity before....& The Best kind of Memorial is a BURNING Memorial)

I want to apologize. I've noticed recently I've been irritable with people here when I normally wouldn't be. I think I'm letting stress in real life carry over into my virtual interactions. I ought to have just explained how meningitis is transmitted instead of being rude to you. I will keep an eye on myself for a while so I don't myself make knee-jerk judgments of people I haven't spoken to before. I'm sorry I was rude to you.

27
posted on 09/14/2006 10:58:57 AM PDT
by ahayes
(My strength is as the strength of ten because my heart is pure.)

Matters not, the men pleaded no contest to the sodomy charge and then appealed to overturn the law.

And DA Chuck Rosenthal said that he didn't necessarily support the law (against same sex sodomy) but that he "had" to enforce the laws of the state (of course he'll still prosecute you as a felon if you are LEGALLY driving with a gun in your car as approved by the legislature).

Chuck Rosenthal (R) hasn't gotten my vote in years.

29
posted on 09/14/2006 11:06:18 AM PDT
by weegee
(Remember "Remember the Maine"? Well in the current war "Remember the Baby Milk Factory")

What's unusual is how political correctness makes it okay to identify someone as having meningitis (and when a student has spinal meningitis, the school is rapidly identified and people are encouraged to seek testing in they may have come in contact with him) but we had a couple people die of a particularly nasty strain of West Nile Virus (this one attacks the central nervous system) and the authorities said that because of medical confidentiality, we could only know the county (not even the location) even though 2 people have died already and the disease can be spread by mosquittos.

31
posted on 09/14/2006 11:10:38 AM PDT
by weegee
(Remember "Remember the Maine"? Well in the current war "Remember the Baby Milk Factory")

"Garner, 39, died early Monday at a Houston hospital, said Mark Roy, a spokesman for Lambda Legal in New York City. Garner had been suffering from meningitis and had been in his brother's care for the past six months.

"Over the last few months, he lost the use of his legs from meningitis," Roy told The Associated Press. "

The differential diagnosis would be viral (ie HIV), TB or Fungal.

34
posted on 09/14/2006 11:18:10 AM PDT
by Kozak
(Anti Shahada: " There is no God named Allah, and Muhammed is his False Prophet")

Kozak points out that he suffered with meningitis for six months, so it wasn't bacterial meningitis but possibly viral meningitis caused by the HIV virus, so he may actually have caught meningitis by this route in a circuitous fashion, making me doubly wrong!

42
posted on 09/14/2006 11:36:59 AM PDT
by ahayes
(My strength is as the strength of ten because my heart is pure.)

I would think TB would be the least likely just because TB is not very common in the US. From my reading HIV meningitis is very common in people who are HIV positive and often kind of comes and goes multiple times. Cryptococcal meningitis is common and often fatal. My guess is that would be the most likely, what do you think?

47
posted on 09/14/2006 12:00:54 PM PDT
by ahayes
(My strength is as the strength of ten because my heart is pure.)

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